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By Jim SuhrAssociated Press • Saturday May 26, 2012 9:21 AM

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoGeorgios Kefalas | AP file photo/KeystoneSwiss chemical maker Syngenta is offering $105 million to settle a U.S. lawsuit over one of its herbicides entering water supplies.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An agreement by a Swiss chemicals maker to pay $105 million to settle a
lawsuit over its popular agricultural herbicide could help reimburse nearly 2,000 community water
systems that have had to filter the chemical from drinking water, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys
said yesterday.

The proposed deal, filed on Thursday and announced yesterday by the company, Syngenta, needs the
approval of a federal judge in Illinois, where community water systems in Ohio and at least five
other states have sought to have the company reimburse them for filtering weed-killing atrazine
from their supplies.

As part of the deal, 1,887 community water systems serving more than 52 million Americans might
be eligible to make a claim, said Stephen Tillery, the St. Louis attorney behind the class-action
lawsuit.

The costs of filtering for atrazine led three Ohio communities — Monroeville, Upper Sandusky and
Ottawa — to join with 16 other Midwestern towns in the lawsuit, which was filed in March against
Syngenta. The plaintiffs include the Ohio division of the American Water Co.

American Water provides water to customers in 14 Ohio communities, including seven townships in
Franklin County and the cities of Ashtabula, Mansfield and Marion.

Yesterday, Syngenta said it agreed to settle the matter “to end the business uncertainty” and
avoid further legal costs. Under the settlement, the company will continue to sell atrazine to U.S.
corn growers and denies any liability linked to the chemical, which Syngenta said is used in more
than 60 countries and has been marketed in the U.S. since 1959.

“This settlement is good for Syngenta and the farmers who depend on atrazine, as well as
Syngenta’s retailers, distributors, partners and others who have been inconvenienced by this
ongoing and burdensome litigation for almost eight years,” Syngenta said, referring to state
litigation as well.

Research has shown that runoff after rainstorms can wash the chemical — used for decades to kill
grasses and broadleaf weeds — into streams and rivers, where it can enter drinking-water
supplies.

The lawsuit claimed that atrazine in drinking water can cause low birth weights, birth defects
and reproductive problems. The company has argued that no one has been or ever could be exposed to
enough atrazine in water to harm his health.

The sums that eligible water systems may recover will depend on the levels and frequency of
atrazine contamination they experienced, and on the number of people they serve, Tillery said.
About 300 water systems with the highest contamination levels will be reimbursed for all their
costs, he said.

Under the tentative deal, attorneys representing the water systems will share roughly $34.9 m
illion in fees.

The federal suit includes water providers in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana and Iowa as
well as Ohio.